As Venezuela goes
through a leadership crisis, geopolitical tensions continue to rise. Earlier
this week, the Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido took a public oath to become the interim president of
Venezuela. This was after Nicolás Maduro,
Venezuela’s president since 2013, used blatant anti-democratic and illegal
means to win the election.

Maduro’s seizure of
power and Guaido’s declaration of interim
Presidency have caused a crisis. Much of the Venezuelan defense department is
still in support of the Maduro regime, while much of the populace of Venezuela
favors Guaido.

Internationally,
countries have been taking sides as well. Russia, China, Turkey, Iran, and
Mexico all still recognize Maduro as the president of Venezuela. Guaido’s claims have been recognized by the Organization of American States along with
nations including Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and the
United States.

After the United
States recognized Guaido’s claims, Maduro
cut off all diplomatic relations with the US. After Maduro ordered all
diplomats out of the United States, he started to backtrack, opening up
communications with the Trump Administration for the next 30 days.

2. Caesar
Syria Civilian Protection Act of 2019

The US House of
Representatives passed a bipartisan bill to put more pressure on the Syrian
Government. The Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act of 2019 requires that the
President place sanctions on anyone who does business with the Syrian
government.

This bill is an
attempt to keep putting pressure on the Assad regime in order to enact change. Since the fighting in Syria is slowing down, several countries
are looking to re-establish relations with the Syrian government.

The bill still must
pass the Senate before going before the president.

3.
Possible arms control talk between Russia and the United States

With tensions between
the United States and Russia high, arms control may be on the table at next
week’s United Nations meeting in Beijing.

Both the United
States and Russia claim the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty has been breached.

According to claims
by the United States, Russia has broken the deal that dates back to 1987 by
developing and deploying their ground-launched Novator 9M729 nuclear-capable
cruise missile.

This weapon has a
range well over the 5,000 km limit and has been
placed in locations that threaten the United States’ European allies.

Russia, on the other
hand, accuses the United States of fabricating a false narrative to leave the
accord and says that the missile is in
compliance with the treaty.

The Trump
administration has been open about suspending its obligation to the treaty if
Russia does not take actions to comply with the INF treaty by February 2nd. This has put tensions between the two countries
that we have not seen since the cold war. Under Secretary of State Andrea
Thompson has said that the suspension of obligations by the United States would
be reversible if Russia were to once again
comply, however, says Thompson, “I’m not particularly optimistic.”

4.
Russian bill looking to stop free speech

Expressing blatant
disrespect toward the government could earn Russians 15 days in jail, according
to a bill that just passed their lower house of parliament.

The
bill proposes fines up to 5,000 rubles ($76) or a 15-day jail sentence to
people that express blatant disrespect toward government agencies, the state,
the public, the Russian flag or constitution. A second bill that was voted on seeks to impose fines of 5,000
rubles on individuals and 1 million rubles on companies that spread “fake news.”

This kind of
suppression of speech does not fit with the democratic ideals Russia is said to
have. This form of censorship isn’t unlike that of the Soviet Union using the
Goskomizdat, Gosteleradio, and Goskino to censor critiques of the Communist
Party.

In the last five
years, the Russian government has passed several laws that harken back to a
communist mindset. And in keeping up with the times, they’ve moved from
monitoring newspapers and radio shows to now monitoring the internet. They’ve
required search engines to delete some search results that go against the
Russian narrative. They’ve passed bills that require messaging services to
share encryption keys with security services, all in the name of state
security.